An unnecessary owner and a tragicomedy, political scientists evaluate the maneuvers of TOP 09

“It was basically a last resort. If a person with such a tarnished reputation joined the government after Helena Langšádlová, who worked well, she just couldn’t sell it, no one in that department would even bother with him,” political scientist Ladislav Mrklas told Novinka.

According to him, the party is now in a very difficult, even almost unsolvable situation, which it got into purely through its own fault. He did not even rule out that Langšádlová could return to her position in the government.

It would make sense if Helena Langšádlová was replaced by a real ace whose name would ring a bell. Someone who would bang the table presented three points and three billion

“It is one of the possibilities, even if it would be an admission of a huge mistake. But it would be better than starting a lengthy search for a new successor now. You have to realize that it’s only for a year and a bit, so the attractiveness of this chair is decreasing,” he believes.

Tuleja gave up the nomination

Homemade

Political scientist Jan Kubáček also spoke about the fact that the party is harming itself. “It’s an unnecessary own goal for the TOP 09 network, which carried out personnel changes that were not requested by anyone, not even the public, because they were not informed of any problem. This confirms that if you want to replace your own people without losing preferences, you have to introduce a new minister immediately and have him well vetted,” he said.

He expects that the unmanaged maneuvers will have less impact on the already weak preferences of TOP 09, which is the exact opposite of what, according to political scientists, the party promised itself after the change of minister.

A needless transgression

“Other parties might wave their hands over it, but TOP 09 appeals dominantly to people who are involved in politics. For her, it’s an unnecessary transgression, an unnecessary reminder of her own trouble. It will now be on TOP 09 to carry out the exchange very quickly in cooperation with the Prime Minister and ideally within a matter of days. She should shift attention to priorities, because now some people will say that the work at the resort is stalling, and that’s only because someone in the management had a problem with Helena Langšádlova,” he described.

According to him, the party will now be looking for a new minister mainly within the ranks of its political club.

Kalousek on preferences: Losing voters when I didn’t really do anything hurts

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Langšádlová did no harm

Even Mrklas was shaking his head at the beginnings of TOP 09. “It would make sense if Helena Langšádlová was replaced by a real ace whose name would ring a bell. Someone who would bang on the table presented three points and three billion, because he is from a business, an international environment, where it would be clear from the beginning that he is a person with a completely different media ability and so on,” he portrayed.

“But now the party has reached a tragicomic stage, which is the worst thing that could happen,” added Mrklas.

According to him, Langšádlová did not damage the image of TOP 09 with her actions. Although she was not visible, according to him, the other representatives of TOP 09 are not much better off. “She didn’t stand out in anything fundamental, and she didn’t even outrage most people. Compared to what is happening now, it would be better if she stayed there,” he evaluated.

He believes that the party is moving to the brink of extinction because, according to him, only platitudes come out of it and the voters no longer even know what it stands for. It was also expected that Prime Minister Petr Fiala (ODS) would eventually intervene in the situation. “It would be a reputational problem for him if he were to have a minister there who has a shell of such a type that the community doesn’t take him very well. In addition, Petr Fiala is a former rector and knows very well what the problem is with those predatory magazines,” added Mrklas.

The new minister for science is not a star, he has scars in predatory journals, say experts

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“Successful Rector”

At the same time, for example, one of the future main partners of the Minister for Science did not have a fundamental problem with the nomination of Tulej. Member of the Government Council for Science, Research and Innovation (RVVI) Ladislav Krištoufek, economist and vice-rector for science at Charles University, would not consider the scrabbles from Tulej’s scientific activity to be a difficulty in cooperation.

“From my point of view, the main problem there, perhaps traditionally, is communication around the whole situation. The preparation of this position, the consideration of the replacement of ex-minister Langšádlová was not done completely honestly, and the communication around it was unfortunate,” he told Novinkám.

He considers the very appeal of Langšádlová, whose work he valued, to be unfortunate.

According to him, Tuleja’s managerial skills are essential for the position of Minister of Science, who also chairs the RVVI.

“He has had very successful periods in the role of rector of the Silesian University of Opava, where the position was not easy. And that’s what he should bring to that system. As far as I know, he was perceived positively in the Czech Rectors’ Conference during his tenure and his word was respected. And that is important,” he said.

According to him, the scientific history of the Minister for Science and Research also plays a role, but it is not the most important. “Predatory publications are problematic, it could have been dealt with much better. In the same way, it was much better to talk about the qualities that Associate Professor Tuleja has and why he was chosen for this post. I certainly won’t have a problem with him,” he added.